Conflicts – Cologne – Fischer: government goes as far as it can with sanctions – politics
Cologne (dpa) – The former Federal Foreign Minister and Green Party politician Joschka Fischer thinks it is right that the federal government is rejecting an immediate import ban on Russian gas and oil. “It’s easy to ask, but if you have to weigh that, whether you’re going to trigger a major economic crisis with hundreds of thousands of people out of work – I think you can fully trust the federal government to do whatever it takes to get out of this dependency that has been going on for many years come out,” said Fischer on Wednesday evening at the Lit.Cologne literature festival in Cologne, where he presented his new book “Zeitenbruch”. The federal government will try everything if sanctions are justifiable, “but it will take time”.
Fischer also spoke out against a no-fly zone over Ukraine. “The risk is enormous,” he said. Of course, Ukraine would be helped wherever possible, but one should not forget that Russia is one of the largest nuclear powers. When asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would at least shy away from a nuclear war, Fischer said: “I hope that Vladimir Putin has a residual spark of rationality.” From 1998 to 2005 Fischer was Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor in the red-green party Coalition of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD).
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